Regina Mills/During Second Curse
A new curse is cast by someone powerful; returning Regina and the rest of the Enchanted Forest inhabitants to the town of Storybrooke. However, as a result of the curse, everyone's last recollection is the final day in Storybrooke when Pan's curse was stopped, but no one can recall anything further than that. Regina resumes work as the mayor and receives a shock when she sees Henry at the diner. She drops a cup, startling him, but quickly recovers to apologize. Regina is pulled aside by Emma, who regained her memories from a potion. She denies responsibility for the new curse as being without her son is torture. Emma believes her, but the culprit must be found, so they lure everyone into believing Regina is to blame. At a town hall meeting, Leroy, who is also in on the ploy, accuses Regina and the whole town turns against her. To up the show, Regina causes a tremor and teleports away. Regrouping at the mayoral office with Emma, Regina makes a potion to recall the year prior to the new curse, but it fails. In another plan, they have Leroy spread the false word that Regina is making a potion, so whoever drinks it can recall who cursed them, in order to smoke out the crook. She and Emma have a stake-out in a car, and upon seeing a shadow in the mayoral office, they burst in, but the person disappears in green smoke. Afterward, Regina meets Henry; inviting him on a town tour and ice cream, to which he accepts. Later, David and Hook report witnessing a resident transform into a flying monkey, as it is concluded that the Wicked Witch of the West cast the new curse. While David, Emma and Hook search the mayoral office for any evidence the Wicked Witch left behind, Regina treats Henry to ice cream and they take a stroll in the park. She is pleased to hear that he likes Storybrooke, which unlike New York, is not as large and makes him feel less lonely. Henry relates his concerns about Emma' suspecting his mother dragged him to Storybrooke for more than work-related business, and believes she is struggling since turning down her boyfriend Walsh's proposal. He expresses a fondness for Walsh since the three of them spent holidays together. Regina implies that he may have many relatives to spend festivities with someday; referencing herself and the rest of his family that the boy doesn't remember. After receiving a call from Emma, Regina drops Henry off at Granny's and rejoins her allies. She, Emma, and Hook learn David was attacked by the Wicked Witch's magic, which took on his own form and forced him to conquer fear by stabbing the assailant with a sword's hilt. Though David says the hilt disappeared with his attacker, Regina believes the sword is now in the Wicked Witch's possession. Altogether, they go to a farmhouse and investigate a cellar, which was locked, but is now mysteriously open. Inside, the cell's occupant is gone, but a spinning wheel with strands of spun gold litter the floor; evident proof that Mr. Gold is alive. In a morning meeting at the closed diner, Regina and her allies discuss what to do now that Mr. Gold is apparently alive. Hook recalls Neal, in the Enchanted Forest, expressing an interest in finding a way to bring his father back; hoping that could be a link to returning to Emma and Henry. While the others are more concerned about tracking down Mr. Gold so they can learn the Wicked Witch's identity, Regina settles for returning to the farmhouse alone and searching for evidence. Nearing the farmhouse, Regina catches an arrow shot by Robin Hood as he mistook her for the Wicked Witch. Since they both believe the Wicked Witch left behind a trail, he decides to accompany her. She warns him not to get in her way, which he responds by saying, "I wouldn't dream of it." Struck by deja vu, she wonders if they met before, but Robin Hood is certain that's not the case since he wouldn't forget someone like her. Inside the house, Regina is not able to find anything of magical properties. During the search, Robin Hood remarks she really doesn't seem as bad as her former title of "Evil Queen", to which she wryly states that fear can be a powerful influence of how people see her. They lock eyes, with him closing the distance between them, as Regina perceives he is trying to kiss her. Instead, he grabs a bottle on the shelf behind her and asks if it's magical. Humorously, she determines it's whiskey, and he proceeds to pour some for both of them. As he hands her a cup, Regina sees a lion tattoo on his arm; the same one from when she and Tinker Bell went to find her true love. Shaken, she departs; leaving behind a confused Robin Hood. Later, she watches him from a distance as he plays with his son, Roland. Regina attends Neal's funeral to pay her respects. Afterwards, at the diner, she is approached by Tinker Bell, who notices the lion tattoo on Robin Hood's arm. Despite that Regina is ignoring the situation, Robin Hood comes over to offer her a drink, which she declines. Out of his hearing range, Tinker Bell insists she must learn from her past mistake of not being open to love, which is the reason her life turned out the way it did. Regina snaps at her; causing the latter to drop the subject. In a surprise public appearance, Zelena claims they are half-siblings, courtesy of Cora, and tells Regina to find proof if necessary. Zelena sets a deadline for her to be on Main Street after sundown. Regina searches the vault for a letter Rumplestiltskin wrote to Cora speaking highly of her first-born child's magical skills. Having read it many times in the past, she always assumed the letter was about herself, though it actually concerns Zelena. In the forest, Regina mulls over the letter, worried that because her former magic instructor considers Zelena so powerful, then she herself isn't strong enough to defeat her. Robin Hood stops to converse with her and steals the note, which he reads with her permission. Regina shares her sentiments with him, but later recognizes she has something Zelena doesn't. Recalling her mother's fondness for ripping out hearts, Regina takes out her heart and buries it in the woods. In a showdown with Zelena, the two trade magical blows until Regina is thrown into the clock tower. Zelena fails to steal her heart, but furiously promises to take everything of hers. In the aftermath, Regina entrusts Robin Hood with guarding her heart. Regina casts a protection spell on the apartment to keep Mary Margaret and her unborn child safe. When Emma expresses an interest in upping her magical skills to compete with Zelena, she sets up a meeting in the vault to begin the lesson. Regina wants to start the magic session with a spell book, but Emma suggests she try teaching methods Rumplestiltskin used. Regina can only recall her former instructor being pushy and even cruel, but this inspires her to place Emma on a bridge and cut the rope; forcing the latter to use magic by instinct to save herself. Though Regina has hopes Emma can magically retie the severed rope, she exceeds expectations by building a makeshift landing out of the bridge planks. They return to the apartment when Hook returns without Henry since he allowed Emma's parents to take him. He fills them in on his day's adventure of helping Ariel find a missing Eric. Emma's parents arrive home with Henry after allowing him to have a test drive using David's truck, which causes Regina to be outraged and worried about Henry's safety. Seeing the boy's confused reaction, Regina masks her outburst by stating it's her job as mayor not to allow underage driving. Hook details the outcome of Ariel's quest; mentioning she and Eric reunited on Hangman's Island in the Enchanted Forest. With Regina's instruction, Emma is assigned the task of projecting an image in the mirror of Ariel and Eric on Hangman's Island, which she does with success. That night, Regina joins David, Emma, Henry and Mary Margaret at the diner for a meal. Regina, after Mr. Gold steals her heart from Robin Hood on Zelena's orders, takes the now defunct candle in the hopes of talking to her mother about Zelena's origins. As part of a rule for contacting a deceased person, both the murder weapon—the candle—and murder—Mary Margaret—must be present. In a seance, she, David, Emma, Hook and Mary Margaret link hands to open the land of the dead, but Cora doesn't come out. Due to this failure, Regina accepts that Cora wants her secrets to stay buried forever. Emma, David and Hook leave Regina's house, but Mary Margaret stays behind to help clean up. Guiltily, Mary Margaret owns up to her regret over killing Cora. Regina takes this in stride; considering Cora murdered Mary Margaret's mother, Queen Eva. The two discover Cora's angry spirit has crossed over to get even with Mary Margaret. Regina protects the expecting mother and demands answers from Cora, who responds by possessing Mary Margaret's body and allowing her a glimpse of the past. Cora is then forced back into the land of the dead by Regina's magic just as Belle, David, Emma and Hook arrive. Mary Margaret reveals Cora, already pregnant with another man's child, was once engaged to Leopold, but Eva deliberately wrecked it. In turn, this caused Cora to unwillingly abandon Zelena after birth. As for the ingredients of Zelena's spell, as Belle explains, they are for a time spell to alter the past; namely to kill Eva and keep Cora from abandoning her first-born child. In a talk, Mary Margaret convinces Regina that she deserves happiness and shouldn't let anything hold her back. This prompts Regina find Robin Hood and give him a long-awaited kiss. The next morning, Regina and Robin Hood meet at the inn for a quick kiss session before she goes to meet David, Emma and Mary Margaret to strategize on how to break the new curse. With the last curse, Emma recalls believing in magic after touching the fairytale storybook, which triggered her memories of the Enchanted Forest. From this, Regina suggests the key to breaking the curse is for Henry to believe in magic as Emma did. They head to the apartment where the storybook appeared to Mary Margaret during the first curse, and the former schoolteacher "magically" finds the book in a chest box. Henry is discovered missing from the inn; sending everyone on a wild goose chase to the docks, in which Emma shoots a flying monkey to protect him. She hands the storybook to him; asking that he believe in magic. Upon touching the book, Henry receives his lost memories back and runs over to Regina, but is swiftly pulled away by Zelena, who proceeds to choke him. Regina's attempt to fight the witch causes her to be knocked unconscious for the remainder of the battle; ending when Emma magically scalds Zelena and forces her to retreat. Roused awake by Henry, Regina promises to never leave him again and gives her son true love's kiss; breaking the new curse. She and Henry catch up on lost time, and he is formally introduced to Robin Hood.